Page 195 - DCAP606_BUSINESS_INTELLIGENCE

Business Intelligence

Notes 3. Scheduling and distribution capabilities: The reporting tool must have scheduling and
distribution capabilities.

Notes Weekly reports are scheduled to run on Monday morning, and the resulting reports
are distributed to the senior executives either by email or web publishing.
4. Security Features: Because reporting tools are aimed towards a number of users, making
sure people see only what they are supposed to see is important.

Did u know? Security can reside at the report level, folder level, column level or row level.
Generally all established reporting tools have these capabilities.

5. Customization: Provide easy way to pre-set the reports to look exactly the way that
adheres to the corporate standard.
6. Export capabilities: The most common export needs are to Excel, to a flat file, and to PDF.

!
Caution For Excel, if the situation wants, you will want to verify that the reporting format,
not just the data itself, will be exported out to Excel.

Example: The BIRT reporting features like report layout, data access, and scripting support
are used to create reports that use the custom reporting URLs from Rational Asset Manager.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. There are two types of data sources: the ....................... and the OLAP multidimensional
data source.
2. ....................... is used to generate human-readable reports from various data sources.

14.2 Reporting Services Using SQL Server

Microsoft has come up with its own reporting service, in conjunction with SQL server database
to insert the Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services [SSRS]. It supplies projects of type Business
Intelligence task therefore endowing not only large companies but also medium-sized and
small businesses also to earn from its advantages. This helps in better business decisions too.

SSRS supplies some extensions towards the data rendering, consignment and security of reports
thereby allowing it to have a higher programmable ability. This innovative approach enables
reports to be created with lesser development effort [compared to other reporting services],
along with customized security choices.

SSRS is a comprehensive reporting platform whereby accounts are retained on a centralized
web server (or set of servers). Because accounts are centralized, users run accounts from one
location. Having centralized accounts also means that report deployment is rather simplified.

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